This follows Pocket Full of Stones.
Klaus' kitchen had become her territory.
It wasn't like he actually used it. Cooking and baking weren't particularly high priority activities for the family, and other than the occasional Elijah ordained dinner that turned into mayhem, the kitchen went unused. It suited her perfectly.
It was a crime, to waste such a gorgeous space.
Particularly on those nights she stayed over, and some minion or other interrupted them with some crisis management. Caroline rarely managed to sleep once he'd left to remove heads, and instead made her way downstairs to bake. Thankfully, Kol could be taught, so the time she'd woken to find only crumbs remaining of the cupcakes she'd left out to cool hadn't been repeated.
But tonight, even baking didn't really cure her boredom. Klaus had his collection of siblings had been gone for just over two weeks, and she was a little perturbed at how much she missed him. She hadn't planned to crash at his mansion while he was gone, but a pipe had burst in the apartment above hers. Between the minor flooding and construction work, she'd been annoyed and restless. But it had been the unexpected invasion of ants that had her packing a bag and making herself comfortable in his room.
The series of text messages and complaints she'd sent Klaus had led to a truly spectacular round of phone sex. Caroline could deal with any number of creepy crawly bugs, but ants were where she drew the line. Klaus had been quite willing to assist in taking her mind off of the horror of finding them floating in the river in her bathroom.
Now it was Sunday night, she had three dozen cupcakes cooling on the kitchen island, and she was bored out of her mind. Reaching for the wine bottle she'd opened, she topped of her glass with a sigh. It wasn't even the lack of sex that was bothering her, though that one bout of phone sex had been fun, but she found herself actually missing Klaus. Usually he'd stroll into her domain once she'd gotten the first batch of cupcakes into the oven and they'd spend the next hour companionably chatting while she flipped through cookbooks and he sketched.
She found that she missed it, now that he wasn't here. Caroline hoped he was ripping someone's face off. Grumpily, she flipped open her newest cookbook and moodily perused the pages, irritated at herself. Determined to ignore the unexpected loneliness, she buried herself in her lists and possibly recipes.
"Should I expect you to have taken over my closet the same way you've helped yourself to my kitchen?"
Caroline froze, fingers hovering over a page, before she tilted her head to find Klaus watching her from the doorway. The heat in his gaze belayed his relaxed posture, and his tongue snaked out to wet his lips as his his gaze lingered on the expanse of bare leg her shorts left bare.
Unable to stop the bright smile at seeing him, she forced herself to shrug nonchalantly and ignore the flare of heat as his gaze. "I'm sure you'd manage to find somewhere for your clothes, if I did. It's not like I'm kicking you out of your bed."
Klaus pushed off the doorjamb and smiled slowly, dimples cutting deep. "Now, that would be a bit counterproductive, wouldn't you say, love? Particularly with how determinedly you starfish across every available inch of me…"
She pressed her mouth against his, as soon as he was close enough, cutting off his teasing words. Winding her fingers through his hair, she kissed him until his fingers slid down her spine to cup her ass, his mouth open and hot against hers.
"You don't complain," she pointed out a touch breathlessly, nails dragging against the fine hairs at his nape.
"You're usually naked," he returned, lips moving across her jaw to her ear. "Why would I?"
Shivering at the scrape of teeth against her skin, Caroline pressed closer, hand moving to delve under his shirt. She hummed at the way his abdomen twitched underneath her palm, and her head fell back with a sigh, encouraging his mouth against her skin.
"Since I have a no sex where I bake rule, you should take me to bed," she murmured, hand moving even lower, fingers brushing just inside the waist of his pants. He laughed against her pulse point, and she shivered as he encouraged her to wind her legs around his hips as he lifted her.
She went in for another kiss, this one almost lazy,with slow, welcoming brushes of their mouths. The aggravation from before melted further away with every kiss, and even the heat of her arousal couldn't push aside the sudden feeling of contentedness. But as Klaus started up the stairs to their room, each step rolling her against him, she decided to examine those feelings later.
They'd be there tomorrow.
